Aspen Institute Announces 2024 Ascend Fellows

These 22 leaders are transforming systems so that our country's youngest children and families can thrive

Contact: Adam Flango
Communications Officer, Ascend at the Aspen Institute
[email protected]
724.316.4761

Washington, DC, Sept. 4, 2024 - Today, the Aspen Institute announced its 2024 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellows, 22 leaders from across the United States who are transforming systems so that our youngest children and families can thrive.

The 2024 Ascend Fellows represent 14 states and the District of Columbia; are 82 percent leaders of color, including Black (55%), Indigenous (9%), Latina (9%), and Asian-American (9%); and work across systems and sectors to do the following and more:

• Ensure new parents, children, and their families have access to mental and behavioral health services,
• Expand access to early care and education in rural and immigrant communities and invest in the early childhood workforce across the country,
• Apply lessons from Indigenous communities to home visiting and well-being across the lifespan,
• Build family stability to help keep families together and children out of child welfare systems, and
• Expand guaranteed income and other sources of capital, so families can determine their own paths.

The 2024 cohort demonstrates a deeper investment in leaders in the South, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas. These leaders recognize the need to address systemic injustice and value a model of leadership that works alongside those most proximate to the problems they are trying to solve.

"Reaching children and their families in their earliest years is vital to building intergenerational prosperity and well-being," said Anne Mosle, vice president of the Aspen Institute and founder and executive director of Ascend. "I'm inspired by the commitment of these 22 leaders to transform the systems that our young children and their families experience. By embracing the power of change capital - financial, intellectual, human, and social capital - they are making the world work for children and families."

With the addition of the 2024 cohort, the Ascend Fellowship is home to a national network of more than 160 of the most promising leadersour country has to offer - leaders well-connected, well-prepared, and powerfully positioned to build the political will, change systems, and drive the policy agenda needed for the prosperity and well-being of all children and families.

Below are the 2024 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellows:

• Tess Abrahamson-Richards, Director of Data Sovereignty, Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services | Seattle, Washington
• Darneshia Allen, Training and Technical Assistance Integration Manager, ZERO TO THREE, | Benton, AR
• Jamal Berry, President and CEO, Educare DC |Washington, DC
• Nia Bodrick, MD, General Pediatrician, Children's National Hospital | Washington, DC
• Clinton Boyd, Jr., PhD, Researcher, Chapin Hall | Chicago, IL
• Sixto Cancel, Founder & CEO, Think of Us | Washington, DC
• Barbara DiGangi, Director of Community Wellness Initiatives, University Settlement | New York, NY
• Elizabeth Everett, Deputy Director and Public Policy Manager, First Five Nebraska | Lincoln, NE
• Shimica Gaskins, President & CEO, GRACE & End Child Poverty CA | Pasadena, CA
• Teresa Granillo, PhD,CEO, AVANCE | San Antonio, TX
• Kai-ama Hamer, Director, ParentCorps, Center for Early Childhood Health and Development, NYU School of Medicine | New York, NY
• Keami Harris, Chief of Equity and Strategy, Early Childhood Funders Collaborative | Upper Marlboro, MD
• Kenn Harris,Senior Consultant, National Partnership for Community Leadership | Groton, CT
• Priya Iyer, Founder & CEO, Our Roots | Oakland, CA
• Sarah Kuriakose, Associate Commissioner, Division of Integrated Community Services for Children and Families, New York State Office of Mental Health | Albany, NY
• Vance Lewis, Associate Partner, Promise Venture Studio | Oakland, CA
• Natalie Renew, Executive Director, Home Grown | Philadelphia, PA
• Demetrius Starling, Senior Deputy Director, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services | West Bloomfield, MI
• Madeleine Thakur, President & CEO, The Children's Movement of Florida | Miami, FL
• Shannon Wanless, PhD, Executive Director and Associate Professor, Office of Child Development, University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, PA
• Jennifer Wells, Director of Economic Justice, Community Change | Montgomery, AL
• Chelsea Wesner, Research Instructor, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health, University of Colorado | Vermillion, SD

About the Ascend Fellowship

With the addition of the 2024 cohort, there are now 162 Ascend Fellows across the country building pathways to intergenerational family prosperity and well-being.

Through the Ascend Fellowship, we invest in a diverse cadre of leaders, well-connected, well-prepared, and powerfully positioned to build the political will, change systems, and drive the policy agenda needed for the prosperity and well-being of all children and families

To date, Ascend Fellows have enacted transformative state policies, advocated for children and families as part of the United States Senate, led revolutionary nonprofits, and conducted groundbreaking academic research. Click hereto learn more about the full network of Ascend Fellow alumni.

The Ascend Fellowship is made possible through the generous support of the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, Catto Shaw Foundation, Charlotte Perret Family Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Liz Blake Giving Fund of the Blake Family Foundation, Merle Chambers Fund, Patrice King Brickman, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

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Ascend at the Aspen Instituteis a catalyst and convener for diverse leaders working across systems and sectors to build intergenerational family prosperity and well-being by intentionally focusing on children and the adults in their lives together. We believe in the power of co-creation. We are a community of leaders - well-connected, well-prepared and well-positioned - building political will that transforms hearts, minds, policies, and practices.

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The Aspen Instituteis a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society's greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

We are grateful for the generous support of the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, Catto Shaw Foundation, Charlotte Perret Family Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Liz Blake Giving Fund of the Blake Family Foundation, Merle Chambers Fund, Patrice King Brickman, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which makes the Aspen Institute Ascend Fellowship possible.

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